Starting a new Summer!

Well, here I am in Durango once again! This is my third summer to work with Compass Wilderness, and it has been fantastic thus far. It is so nice to escape from the heat and humidity of the Texas summer, although it's always a little sad to leave friends and family behind for a couple months. We just finished up with our second group of campers on Friday, and a new group arrives on Monday afternoon. The last group was a camping group, which was fun even though it's still pretty cool up here at night. We'll be in the condos for this week, and I am glad to escape the mosquito problems that we faced with the camping group last week in Chris Park.

This summer we are trying something new as a staff, which I am still not sure that I like all the time... Lance decided that we would have "optional" staff workouts this summer ('optional' meaning that you don't HAVE to participate, but that you will likely face peer pressure and ridicule if you decide to opt out). It has been fun though to see some improvement already, even though we've only had about two weeks total of workouts. The program that we follow is called CrossFit, and each day there is a new workout posted online called the WOD or Workout of the Day. The program is designed to be an overall cardio workout, which means a lot of timed workouts and a lot of repetitions! Anyways, it is exhausting, but usually rewarding and even kind of fun. This is a picture of Hannah and I hanging in the doorway after a WOD during the first week when we had to do 100 total pull-ups!!!


I don't have a picture yet with all of the staff members this year, but it is a really great group!
The girls include: Hannah (20 yrs old, junior at Missouri St), Samantha/Sam (21 yrs old, senior at Baylor) and Emily (20 yrs old, junior at Abilene Christian).
The boys are: Justin (22 yrs old, just graduated from Baylor), Brian (22 yrs old, graduating from Baylor in December) and Will (21 yrs old).
Of course we always have our fearless leaders as well: Lance and Courtney (and their two boys Nash and Beck).

Anyways, I am really looking forward to the rest of the summer, and I will be sure to write again and tell of all the wonderful ways that God is using our ministry.

God Bless!
--Alyssa